North American Premiere
A woman in her 40s, Reyhan has lost something monumental. Her sense of smell is entirely gone, without explanation. Rather than seeking further treatment, she decides to vanish from her life to find a new one. To others, she is missing. To herself, she has discovered a newfound freedom. In Istanbul, she takes a job at a cheap hotel, despite being overqualified, and volunteers at a school for blind children. Her body is at war with itself, her loss of smell keeps her at a distance from the world around her, while a childhood injury has left her with a limp that she can’t overcome. Lead actress Defne Kayalar delivers a masterfully subtle performance as a woman aiming to circumvent the limitations we face as members of the human race. She wants no possessions, no obligations, no career aspirations, and no relationships. As she tries to remove herself from the boundaries of her body, she uncovers a greater understanding about her desires and where her happiness truly lies.
October 3 & 5: Q&A with director Melisa Önel
Community Partner
Defne Kayalar, Öner Erkan, Şerif Erol, Ayşenil Şamlioğlu, Dilan Çiçek Deniz
Turkey
2022
Panorama
In German and Turkish with English subtitles
Book Tickets
Indigenous & Community Access
Indigenous Access Tickets Community Access Tickets Ticket Donation Requests
Credits
Executive Producer
Sinan Eczacibasi, Firat Isbecer
Producer
Alara Hamamcioglu, Melisa Önel, Paul Zischler, Jelena Angelovski
Screenwriter
Feride Çiçekoğlu, Melisa Onel
Cinematography
Meryem Yavuz
Editor
Ozcan Vardar
Original Music
Branislav Jovancevic
Director
Melisa Önel
Melisa Önel is a filmmaker and photographer. After studying International Relations at Tufts University, Melisa continued with Film Studies at Istanbul Bilgi University. Her photography work has been presented in many international exhibitions and she collaborates in theater, making video installations. She has been writing and directing shorts, fiction films and documentaries since 2007, including Me and Nuri Bala (Best First Documentary at Antalya Film Festival 2009), Seaburners and Coastliners.
Filmography: Me and Nuri Bala (2009); Seaburners (2014); Coastliners (2016)
Missing VIFF? Check out what's playing at the VIFF Centre
How Deep Is Your Love
Filmmaker Eleanor Mortimer tags along with a team of oceanographers and marine biologists as they survey the Clarion-Clipperton fracture, one of the most remote spots on Earth, home to a dazzling array of unknown creatures.
Two Strangers Trying Not to Kill Each Other
This intimate and candid film by a younger husband and wife artist team is a delicate and immensely moving dual portrait of two artists, husband and wife, together and apart, at that point in life when the end casts a shadow over even the sunniest day.
Image: © Manon et Jacob and Final Cut For Real
Do You Love Me
Lana Daher's bravura and defiant non-fiction film is a cultural-historical self-portrait of Beirut, comprised entirely of film clips (many of them from dramatic features, but also from news reports, TV and home video) culled from the last 70 years.
Blue Heron
In the late 1990s, eight-year-old Sasha and her Hungarian immigrant family relocate to a new home on Vancouver Island. Their fresh start is interrupted by increasingly dangerous behaviour from Jeremy, the family’s oldest child.
Omaha
Cole Webley's road movie about a single dad taking off with his two young kids is really just a fragment of a story, yet it unfolds with such authentic lyricism it lands with a heartbreaking emotional wallop.